Quotes from Sondra Locke

People have this fantasy that it's all just an easy ride if you know someone important. Well, it's not. I've known lots of people in this business - and it hasn't really done anything for me.

I never knew my father, which explains the Clint thing. He called himself Daddy... I loved it then, because it filled a great void.

Most movies are too brightly lit. I think that may come from a lot of directors having watched too much TV.

When you're a director, the job itself forces you to take charge.

Laszlo Kovacs was marvelous. He was very much in the same school as Bill Frake, who was, of course, a great cinematographer as well. They had a very similar style and similar sensibility.

I love comedy that seems kind of a little bit absurd.

From the start of our relationship Clint told me that he wanted us always to be together and that he would take care of me forever. Clint repeatedly assured me that, regardless of whether we were married, everything he had was ours together.

I love fairy tales.

I believe in elves and giants. I believe that fairy tales are nothing more than news reports of what once happened.

I tend to be attracted to material that has a tough edge to it - darker material.

Let my critics direct a movie if they think it's so easy!

I think if more women had been directing when I was a child, I probably would have gone for directing first. But, as a child, all I wanted to do was make movies.

If I'm playing a real-life person, I would take notes, I think that's important. For instance, when I played Rosemary Clooney, I was lucky enough to meet her; thankfully, she was still with us. And I talked with her and read her book, so when it's a real person, I want to find out everything I can.

When the actor you're developing a rapport with is directing, you feel much more camaraderie about scenes, and you can relate in a much tighter way.

I'm not going to deny that knowing someone in high places can sometimes get the job done. That's the name of the game. A son or daughter of someone famous will get a break. But once they're in there, they're on their own.

My starring in films with Clint didn't make me toast of the town. I became his appendage. Everything I did was in his shadow.

I never worry about my next assignment, am never concerned when I'm out of work.

I wanted people to know just who I am and what I'm all about and what actually happened. And to remind people that I had a life before Clint, and I intend to have one after.

Working on location is ideal because you enter the character and the story. Shooting at a studio near home, there's a certain split. But on location, you forget the real world, and when you come back to reality, just going to the market can be traumatic.

I am a romantic. I want to cry when I throw out my Christmas tree, and I have a lot of feelings about magic and fantasy.

Believe me, I have met so many people who absolutely have no reason to feel important, and they do!

I was determined not to be typecast.

If you were in Clint Eastwood movies, you were in the Clint Eastwood movie business. You weren't in the movie business. You weren't part of Hollywood. This became clear early on; people stopped calling. They automatically assumed I was working exclusively with Clint.

My biggest misfortune, my greatest regret, is that I wish I'd cut my time with Clint in half. I wouldn't say I wish I never had the relationship, but I wish I'd found a way - I'd understood who he was, where it would end - five or six years earlier so I could have gotten on with things.